RUNNING FOR OUR LIFE!: We're getting out of this place! On Thursday morning there were three coyotes in our front yard! Were we scared? No. We were asleep. Our son, on the other hand, was out grappling with the beasts as he prepared to go to work at Long Beach Airport.

"I thought coyotes were supposed to be afraid of people," Ray told us hours later when we woke up, happily oblivious to the terrors of the outside world. "One of them kept chasing me back into the house."

So, basically, a coyote tried to eat our son.

We blame our 5th District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske. Her job is simple: Keep wild animals from eating our kids. If she can't even do that one job, we say it's time for a change!

STROLL & SAVOR: All this talk about food is making us hungry, and when we're hungry, we like to eat at a couple dozen restaurants at a time. Why limit yourself to just a single eatery's menu, when you can scarf up the offerings of a whole gang of chefs?

A couple ways of getting that done are coming up next week. For starters, there's the always popular and delectable Stroll & Savor event from 5:30-9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday along Second Street in Belmont Shore.

The best part of this event is that the strolling feature totally burns off all the calories you amass in the savoring part.

You can purchase ticket booklets (12 tickets for $10) in advance at several locations in the Shore, or on the evenings of the event at Chase Bank at 5200 Second St.

MUNCH AT MOLAA: Here's another. Sabor Latino brings some of the area's best Latin-spiced food, wine and music from 7 to 10 p.m. June 22 at the Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach

For $25, you get to sample more than 20 wines and food from Gaucho Grill, La Española, Lola's Mexican Cuisine, Alegria Cocina Latina and Cafe Viva.

You need to get your tickets in advance to lock into the $25 price. Call 562-437-1689 and mention Sabor01.

DIA DE PADRES: Father's Day runs smack into the always huge Puerto Rican bash, Dia De San Juan on Sunday at the Queen Mary.

The PR festival will have entertainment artists from the island including local bands, food and merchandise vendors - and lots of dancing at the Queen Mary Events Park. For more information and to buy tickets, go to www.

X SALE: Our favorite annual yard sale (last year they had a giant 4-foot pickle for sale, that's how cool this yard sale is) comes Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 5300 E. Broadway in Long Beach.

It's the seventh annual sale to benefit one of our favorite causes, the Fragile X Association of Southern California.

We think maybe a quarter of our personal belongings come from the sale, so swing by and please beat us to it this year. We'll owe you.

FRIDAY PLAYLIST: It's Father's Day, our favorite holiday of them all. And we're not just saying that because we rake in hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from our beloved son, Ray, and daughter, Hannah, but, because, thanks to our wife, Jane, without whom none of this would be physically possible, the day reminds us of who we are, which is a guy who has had the privilege and joy of living with these little folks and watching them grow up: